The first time I saw Kat Von D’s new $55 Star Studded Eyeshadow Book, all cloaked in black with that star pattern on the outside, I thought, “Ooh! It looks like something Slash would wear on his wedding day.”
Imagine my surprise when I opened it and found 24 uber-organized eyeshadows grouped into efficient color-coordinated quads.
I dunno… Chaos just strikes me as more rock ‘n’ roll, ya know?
Each of the four-color subsections includes a base, lid, crease and accent shade, like something you might find over at a more formal, buttoned-up line like Trish McEvoy, but don’t let that fool you — these shadows still have major rawr.
There’s also a helluva lot more glitter. 🙂
When Tabs keeps me up all night and I wake up with only two functional braincells the following morning, Star Studded’s clever layout should come in handy. That said, nowhere does it say you have to stick to the color combos in the prearranged quads.
Since Kat included a nice range of finishes (mattes, sheens, shimmers and glitters), colors (neutrals and brights) and pigment levels (from sheer to opaque), and all of the shades work together harmoniously, feel free to go off script and crank out looks that are your own.
But before you bust out your blending brushes, a word of warning: the fallout from these shadows is fairly intense. On the one hand, the fluffy, featherweight formula makes them easy to scoot around and blend, but it also makes them…yearn for the open road! Of my face! When I wear this palette, I absolutely have to do my eyes first, clean up the fallout, and then followup with my base makeup; otherwise, it’s La Ciudad de Hot Mess.
Rock ‘n’ roll rebels who like their beauty with bite won’t be disappointed by this well-organized palette, with its cheeky names and flashy finishes, but they better brace themselves for a quick jaunt through fallout city.
PRICE: $55
AVAILABILITY: Limited edition, available now online and at Sephora
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: B+
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
You created a really pretty look. The color is so unexpected but complements you well. Don’t own anything from Kat Von D but I hear her setting spray rivals the UD All Nighter. And it smells great!
I love this palette! I love the different shades. The quality is OK but it wins in terms of color variety. This palette filled in some holes color-wise in my eye-shadow collection.
Really love the eye look you achieved, it’s stunning! Personally I passed on this palette bc I think I’m just too picky when it comes to eyeshadow formulas now-a-days (plus I wouldn’t touch the more vibrant colors much ^^;;)
I love love love love the look you did, but I’m afraid this is really not for me. I don’t have nearly enough patience to work with eyeshadows that produce a lot of fallout!
And now I really want a green eyeshadow look for the day….
Greenies unite! I’m also wearing green today 🙂 The shade that you’re wearing is really gorgeous.
Are you wearing Cult, Leather & a touch of Black Star? This combo you are wearing is fabulous and curious minds need to know.. lol
I almost forgot about fallout as my eyeshadows are pretty well-behaved on that front, but I used a pigment last week and ended up with golden glitter all over my face. It looked like christmas decoration gone wrong…
You always come up with the best color combinations! This look is great on you! Too bad the shadows themselves have so much fallout.
What a beautiful palette! I love the look you did with it, but I’m not sure I can deal with that amount of fallout.
The blue and purple groupings are sooooo not for me (I’m not able to wear blue eyeshadow without looking like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show) but I looove those greens!
I really like this look you created! The green is very pretty
Your eyes look awesome! Karen, did you have any trouble with the shade Gothica? I’d heard it was really really awful but it looks fine in your swatches!
Oh, you make me laugh! The open road. Of your face! HAHA! That is a bummer about the fallout but there is quite a bit of variety here – seems like you could do a kazillion different looks. Naturally, I really like the look of Mandala, which would look absolutely horrific on me. 🙂 I do like the packaging, though. It sort of reminds me of stamped tin ceilings.
This palette was the only item of any brand I’ve ever returned to Sephora. It’s the only Kat von D item I’ve hated. The fallout was so severe, I could not even use the shadows. No matter what primer I used, what brush/applicator, how much I tapped out the excess, this stuff just fell like a snowstorm.
You have mad makeup skills to get such a beautiful look from it.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you give anything a bad review! Lol I’ve heard such awful things about this palette!! I know some KVD collectors that returned this!! That’s how bad it was!!
I’m also wondering how you got gothica to look like that!! That shade was like glitter sand!
Hi Krista,
Generally I mostly choose to write about products I like, for one reason or another, and I did like this palette, despite the fallout! 🙂
Some of these look great but it’s got too many shades I would never use for me to consider a purchase.
Excuuuuse me but those STUNNING blue shades?! Whoa… amazing pigmentation! But I can imagine you won’t be very happy if you have a lot of fallout with such pigmented eyeshadows 🙁
Still, gorgeous colors and they look great on you!
Love, Stefi
Very pretty, but many colors out of my comfort zone .. lol.
Monica
LOVE Kat Von D. Some my first Sephora purchases were her palettes. I used those early palettes out of her collection until they finally wore out. I know one was Beethoven, can’t remember the name of the other. This palette looks like a lot of fun, I know I would love to have this one and Vice by UD. Her shadows always did have some fallout but once they are on they typically won’t crease or fade. Good quality at a good price.